Ask HN: Career Plateau: Looking for Advice on How to Break Through | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Career Plateau: Looking for Advice on How to Break Through

7 pointsvaderyondu10 comments

Hi HackerRank Community,

Seeking advice on a potential career pivot and job change.

My Profile: I have a Master's in System Security. My experience spans: Automation: Java, Selenium. DevOps: CI/CD (Jenkins, Azure Pipelines, GitHub Actions), scripting (Groovy, Shell), and some IaC (Terraform, Crossplane).

Key Achievement: I recently developed and successfully monetized a small SaaS application using LLMs ("vibe coding").Currently in a Compliance role at a large enterprise.

My Core Strength & Passion: I'm a fast learner, a strong problem-solver, and adept at connecting tools to deliver solutions. My real passion, however, lies in onboarding users to new solutions and helping them achieve maximum value based on their needs. I thrive on seeing others succeed with technology.

The Challenge & My Question: While proficient across my DevOps skillset, I'm not a deep expert in specific cloud platforms (e.g., in-depth AWS/GCP/Azure setup), which many specialist roles around my domain seem to require. I'm looking for guidance on how to leverage my "get-it-done" DevOps background and my passion for user enablement for my next role. What career paths or specific job titles should I explore that combine these aspects? I'm thinking of roles like Solutions Architect, Technical Account Manager, Developer Advocate, or Customer Success Engineer, but I'm open to other suggestions.

Specifically, I'd appreciate insights on: Role Fit: Which roles best align my DevOps skills with my interest in user onboarding and value realization? Positioning: How can I best frame my diverse experience (including the monetized SaaS app) for these types of roles?

Skill Development: What key skills (technical or soft) would be most beneficial to develop for such a pivot? Any advice on leveraging my current compliance background in this transition?

Thanks for any insights you can share!

> My real passion, however, lies in onboarding users to new solutions and helping them achieve maximum value based on their needs. I thrive on seeing others succeed with technology.

This sounds like either a Sales Engineer, Technical Support Engineer, or Technical Account Manager. In other words technical roles that communicate directly with customers. Look for jobs with one of those titles or something similar.

> What key skills (technical or soft) would be most beneficial to develop for such a pivot? Any advice on leveraging my current compliance background in this transition?

Your resume paints a picture of who you are, you should be trying to paint the picture of someone highly skilled and experienced at communication and customer success. Accomplishments in your job history which highlight those (regardless of what your literal job title was) should be front and center.

Thank you, I will start looking in to these roles and see how I can land one.

Have you considered dev rel, or perhaps better platform or dev tooling teams at 1000+ engineer organisations?

Whether that us Google depends on if you want to work on their custom tooling or instead work on stacks that are transferable. I imagine the latter

These might require leetcode like entry but once you are in it can be good. However might be worth networking to see what team you'd want to be in first.

i think you are missing the elephant in the room: ai

what skills do you having using

https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code

https://aider.chat/

etc? that's the cli to master

I did develop my whole app which monetized using a no code engine bolt.new. I am familiar with AI tools and have been fiddling around claude code. Thanks for sharing.

How do you create value for a business?

That’s why people get hired.

As roles become more senior, candidates need to answer value questions more clearly.

The best way to answer these questions is people wanting to work with you again because you create value. People skills are more important as roles become more senior.

My standard advice: if you are looking for a job, looking for a job is the place to start. Talk to everyone you have ever looked over, under, or alongside. Network. Network. Network. Good luck.

I will have to put myself more out there in tech events to meet people and network. I am definitely bad at this. Thanks for reminding.

I see people suggest linkedin to network. Not sure on how to get started here.

People you know is where to start because it is not in a vague future that is not a logical extension of present behaviors.

People you know might also benefit from your help.

And because you know them, it can be easier to start a conversation.

Your dream job is probably many ordinary size steps away, not one giant leap.

Habits can only form if they are given enough time to form habits.

Thanks a lot for this advise

Last lines are really good advice!

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